Talkie Tuesday: WHC A Country Christmas

"There's no journey like a shared one."

Hello everyone!

Can you believe we made it to the end? This is the last Talkie post of this calendar year, because starting next week we're already in 2022!

And boy, do I have some goooood posts planned for that one.

But first, one has to go out with a bang, right? So that's why for this particular blog post, we're returning to the fictional, or semi-fictional world of rural Canada back in the day when it was still basically building itself from the ground up, when cars were a novelty and not everyone had them, and when it was the kindness of people that fueled it, not necessarily fuel.

Okay, I'm maudlin now.

For a long time, I did When Calls the Heart specials reviews here on the blog, but this year that one didn't happen because of reasons, however, it's spin-off finally got picked up!

That's right, remember When Hope Calls? Well, it moved to a different production company and is returning for a second season, but first we need to have A Country Christmas.

Tome Thursday: When Hope Springs New

 

Hello everyone!

 

It's a one last time kind of thing for the Canadian north, as we take a look at the fourth book in Janette Oke's saga this week.

 

Now granted, there ARE two more, but as I said in a previous blog post, I won't be reviewing them for this blog because I never enjoyed them all that much in the first place since the characters didn't grab me quite so well as Elizabeth and Wynn.

 

Jack and Elizabeth filled that spot on the television show, but even that's changed somewhat now.

 

But I digress!

 

We've been trudging through the wilderness for the past few books, so it's really high time to find out just how Elizabeth's story concludes.

 

Does the fashionable teacher from Toronto manage to completely overcome her own prejudices and become the woman Wynn could see was a possibility when he fell in love with her? And do they find happiness in the north?

 

All that, and more, will be answered in When Hope Springs New.

 

Tome Thursday: When Breaks the Dawn

 

Hello everyone!

 

And here we are, continuing with the Canadian West saga, returning to the wild North with Elizabeth and Wynn Delaney.

 

We're actually halfway through now, since I've already said I won't be taking a look at the last two books in the series.

 

And boy, does the action pick up in this one!

 

To be clear, none of it is ACTUAL action - this is not an action book, it's a Christian one, historic fiction, and romance - but there is definitely a lot going on at the same time, not to mention a lot of challenges for our heroes to face.

 

What I've always enjoyed about these specific books was the fact that they showed a married couple going through trials and tribulations, and coming out stronger on the other side.

 

... it also helps that I've always seen Stephen Amell as Wynn, after the movie he starred in.

 

So without further ado, let's have a look at When Breaks the Dawn, shall we?

 

Tome Thursday: When Comes the Spring

 

Hello everyone!

 

I return with another Canadian West novel review because I've just been going through them recently one more time (I blame Hallmark entirely).

 

I'll hopefully be able to get all four of the first books up sooner rather than later. I know there are six, there were two other books added to the series which cover a time I think twenty years after the originals are set, but I was never a big fan of those and prefer the main group which focuses on Elizabeth and Wynn.

 

After all, at its core and as an underlying message, these books are about a schoolteacher and a Mountie.

 

It's what made me fall in love with them in the first place!

 

I will say, though, that reading them again certainly does bring different things in perspective now that I'm a bit older ... and I wanted to smack the main character every once in a while.

 

Maybe I'm just too hasty though, you never know.

 

In any event, let's stop my babbling and have a look at exactly what I'm talking about.

 

When Comes the Spring is up next.

 

Tome Thursday: When Calls the Heart

 

Hello everyone!

 

In response to this last Sunday's season finale of the Hallmark channel hit series, When Calls the Heart (which I have reviewed frequently enough on this blog, actually, and the current ending of which I'm not entirely happy with), I decided I had to go back and give the original book another re-read, as I hadn't done it in a while.

 

For those of you who don't know, this is a series of Christian books about a schoolteacher in the Canadian West around the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, who meets and falls in love with a member of the Royal North West Mounted Police.

 

That was its title at the time, though nowadays they are called Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

 

I first found the books because I was looking for the author's original series, Love Comes Softly, but ended up getting the others instead, because, Canada.

 

And since for some reason Hallmark has decided to deviate so strongly away from the original premise, it felt really good to go back in and remind myself why I fell in love with the story in the first place.

 

After all, a teacher and a Mountie on the frontier sounds like an adventure, doesn't it?

 

When Calls the Heart has that and a whole lot more.

 

Talkie Tuesday: When Calls the Heart Christmas Wishing Tree

"Maybe miracles do happen."

Hello everyone!

Hope you've all had a very merry Christmas, and that there's an even better New Year on the way!

Last year around this time, I watched and then blogged about the When Calls the Heart Christmas special. So when news broke that this year would ALSO mark another two-hour episode (or one hour and a half sans commercials) for the Hallmark Channel's hit series, well, I couldn't just ignore it now, could I?

The answer to that would be no, especially since I absolutely LOVE the Canadian West saga by Janette Oke which this show is based off on. Of course there are quite a few changes (and even the Return to Canadian West books aren't exactly the same) but that doesn't mean I haven't fallen in love with the show, because I have. There's something about stories from the frontier, from a different time, when life seemed to be simpler in a lot of ways, that always gets me going.

So here we go, another year almost done, another Christmas episode to review, which means that without further ado we are moving directly into When Calls the Heart: The Christmas Wishing Tree!

Talkie Tuesday: When Calls the Heart Christmas

"Christmas comes but once a year."

Hello everyone!

So it took more than just one day which it usually does for me to finally find a good working link where I could watch the Christmas special When Calls the Heart put up for this holiday season. 

Now I've already written about the show and the books, I think, but in any event I shall check and link all my older posts down below as is my custom when I'm trying to make sense of everything that's come before (and at this point, trust me, it looks as though the only way for me to keep track is by using keywords all around).

In any event, however, I managed to watch the hour and a half special which I had honestly thought would be shorter, but luckily for me it wasn't!

I've missed these characters and their everyday problems, because the thing that initially drew me to the show wasn't the drama or anything of the sort, but what a person would have to get through in an average day on the Canadian frontier.

Plus, I will admit that I have a bit of a crush on Constable Thornton.

Tome Thursday: Where Trust Lies

Hello everyone!

I've been so busy these past couple of days I almost forgot I'm supposed to throw a book blog up tonight. Let me tell you, this whole daylight saving time threw me for a loop because I'm consistently bad at trying to stay awake long or even just getting out of bed in the morning. They should absolutely just erase this from existence. Why do we need it again?!

I'm reading quite a bunch of things at the moment, mostly because I can't really stick to one book only - yeah, tell me about it - and I've also been trying to watch some movies I'm behind with, which isn't quite working either.

But.

I luckily have some stuff to fall back on when desperate times call for desperate measures, and of course one of these are my book reviews from when I was actually doing them diligently enough back in the day.

So because I needed something fairly easygoing, I picked Where Trust Lies.

Tome Thursday: Where Courage Calls

Hello everyone!

I absolutely need something to distract myself with tonight as I have just finished watching the latest episode of Arrow and let me tell you - that show knows exactly how to break my heart every single time it appears. There has to be a reason why it's the most prominent hero show on TV at the moment, right? Right.

Anyway.

I was reminded of this book because I caught something on the internet from the TV show itself, and then went back through my notes to see whether or not I'd actually ever read this or if I have yet to read it.

Luckily, I have!

It's the first book from Janette Oke's continuation to the Canadian West series, titled Return to the Canadian West, of course, and it's called Where Courage Calls!